Diablo 4's Season of Infernal Hordes has seen a rise in the number of players using the Blood Surge Necromancer build due to a new Unique Item added to the game. This build is one of the best AoE Necromancer Builds due to its survivability and reliable damage well into the late game. However, as with most builds, playing it requires a certain mixture of Legendary Aspects, Unique Items, stats, and abilities.

For players who don't have the desire to muck around trying to figure out their own Blood Surge build, guides such as this one can provide a framework to get them playing faster. Keep reading for tips on why this build works, what items and aspects to use, how to arrange the skill tree, and even how to arrange the Paragon Board.

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Why The Blood Surge Necromancer Is So Powerful

Necromancer Blood Surge build in Diablo 4
Diablo 4 Necromancer Blood Surge

The Blood Surge Necromancer Build has been hanging around the upper tiers of play in one form or another since Diablo 4's release. This is due to the strength of the Overpower mechanic. Overpower refers to stronger attacks every character has a chance to make, similar to a Critical Strike. However, Overpower damage scales off of the character's current Health and Fortify amount. Blood Surge is one of the few abilities in the game with a built-in Overpower guarantee, provided players choose the Paranormal Blood Surge upgrade, which guarantees an Overpower Attack at least every five casts of their Core ability.

However, it wasn't until the addition of Cruor's Embrace in Season 5 of the Infernal Hordes that the build really jumped up the Build Tier List. This item further magnifies Blood Surge's damage by consuming nearby corpses for additional explosions, as well as granting five ranks of the skill. The resulting build is dependent on only one Unique item and one Aspect to function while putting out insane damage combined with absurd survivability.

Pros

Cons
  • Easy Itemization
  • Survivability
  • Excellent CC Options
  • High AoE Damage

  • No Mobility/Slow
  • Low Single-Target Damage

Variations Of This Build

While the build showcased here sacrifices all minions for additional personal stats, some variations of the build instead keep their minions and use the Deathspeaker's Pendant Unique Item. This variation allows the player to damage larger areas at once, at the cost of damage multipliers and Damage Reduction.

Skill Tree & Abilities Of The Blood Surge Necromancer

a screenshot of a completed skill tree for the blood surge necromancer

The Skill Tree for the Blood Surge Necromancer is fairly laid back, with some flexibility in the Ultimate and Macabre Nodes to suit personal preference. The key points are in the Basic, Core, and Key Passive Nodes. However, it is important for this version of the Blood Surge Build to generate sufficient Fortify and Blood Orbs - players who want to deviate from the suggested course beware.

Basic Skills

This build uses the Basic Skill Hemorrhage to regenerate Essence as necessary and generate Fortify.

  • Hemorrhage (1/5)
    • Enhanced Hemorrhage
    • Initiate's Hemorrhage

Core Skills

The main damage dealer of the build is its Core Skill - Blood Surge. While taking Supernatural Blood Surge might be tempting to get more Fortify, taking Paranormal Blood Surge instead is vital to generate consistent Overpower Attacks.

  • Blood Surge (5/5)
    • `Enhanced Blood Surge
    • Paranormal Blood Surge

  • Unliving Energy (3/3)
  • Imperfectly Balanced (1/3)
  • Hewed Flesh (2/3)

Corpse & Macabre Skills

In the first Corpse and Macabre Skill Node, Blood Mist provides Defensive Safety and increases Critical Strike Chance. Grim Harvest and Fueled by Death benefit the build because Cruor's Embrace will constantly procc them - players can ignore these until finding the Unique item.

  • Blood Mist (1/5)
    • Enhanced Blood Mist
    • Dreadful Blood Mist

  • Grim Harvest (3/3)
  • Fueled by Death (3/3)

Curses

The Curse Decrepify isn't key to the build, but 10% Damage Reduction is nice, as is the Amplified Damage bonus from the Passive. Happily, there's no need to put more than one point into it, since the Blood Moon Breeches will contribute so many ranks.

  • Decrepify (1/5)
    • Enhanced Decrepify
    • Abhorrent Decrepify

  • Death's Embrace (3/3)
  • Amplify Damage (3/3)
  • Death's Approach (1/3)

Corpse & Macabre Skills (2nd Node)

In the second Corpse and Macabre Node this build picks up Corpse Tendrils - by far the best CC option available to Necromancers. Not only will this ability gather enemies up nicely to hit with Blood Surge, but it will also make them Vulnerable. In addition to Corpse Tendrils, several of the Blood Skill Passives on this node Benefit this build.

  • Corpse Tendrils (1/5)
    • Enhanced Corpse Tendrils
    • Plagued Corpse Tendrils

  • Gruesome Mending (1/3)
  • Coalesced Blood (3/3)
  • Tides of Blood (3/3)
  • Transfusion (3/3)

Ultimate Skills

While this build takes Bone Storm due to its similar AoE to Blood Surge, players can instead take Blood Wave if they can use it without knocking enemies away from them. It also allocates points into buffs for minion sacrifices - if players choose to run minions instead then allocate these points to other passives like Hellbent Commander.

  • Bone Storm
    • Prime Bone Storm
    • Supreme Bone Storm

  • Stand Alone (3/3)
  • Momento Mori (3/3)

Key Passive

The Key Passive of this build is Rathma's Vigor. It provides another method of generating Overpower attacks reliant on staying Healthy. The time between proccs of this passive gets reduced each time the player picks up a Blood Orb, which shouldn't be difficult in this build as the generation chance is high.

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The Book Of The Dead Selections For Blood Nova Necromancer

A screenshot showing the book of the dead choices for blood surge necromancer

This build can be run with minions and the Deathspeaker's Pendant. However, the build performs better against endgame bosses when minions are sacrificed.

Skeletons

Sacrifice the Skeleton Skrimishers to get +10% Critical Strike Chance.

While none of the Skeleton Warrior Sacrifice Bonuses are ideal for the build, Passives in the Necromancer Skill Tree incentivize sacrificing either all or none of the minions, and the buffs from the Mage and Golem Sacrifices are quite desirable.

Mages

Sacrifice the Bone Mages for a +30% increase in Overpower Damage - substantial considering the other buffs this build is stacking.

Golem

Sacrifice the Blood Golem for an additional +15% Maximum Life, potentially increasing the multiplier for Overpower damage by 30% (when full health and fully Fortified).

Itemization Of The Blood Surge Necromancer

two of the items that make the Blood Surge Necromancer Build Work

The itemization for the Blood Surge Necromancer is flexible in that t he build works as long as the player has the Blood Bathed Aspect and the Cruor's Embrace Unique. However, optimizing the build can result in a Maximum Health of 40K, and Overpower bonus Damage of 1499% pre-Masterworking.

High Priority Stats

High Priority Stats in the Blood Surge Necromancer Build from highest to lowest priority include:

  1. Maximum Life
  2. Overpower Damage
  3. Ranks of Blood Surge
  4. Armor
  5. Ranks of Tides of Blood
  6. Ranks of Coalesced Blood
  7. Essence Generation

Any items that increase Minion Stats, Summon Damage, or Cooldown Reduction should be avoided - this build doesn't need those.

The best stats for this build are typically found on Mace Weapons, which innately include Overpower Damage, not Scythes or Wands.

Tempering Statistics

There are a number of things that can increase Tempering optimization, but the most important are:

  1. Blood Surge Size on the Weapon
  2. Overpower Bonus Damage when possible
  3. Corpse Tendrils Size to +100% (it is capped here, so any extra is waste).
  4. Maximum Life when possible

Gem Socketing

Rubies function well in all armor and weapon sockets. Players can choose Skulls or Diamonds in the Jewelry for a general build, or gems that correspond to Element Specific Resistances if they'd like to cater to a specific fight.

Key & Optional Aspects

There are between 7 and 8 spots for Aspects in this build, depending on whether players use a one-handed or two-handed weapon. Use these spots for the following, with some flexibility other than Blood Bathed being required.

  • The Blood-Bathed Aspect from Hoarfrost's Demise in Fractured Peaks
  • Sacrificial Aspect from the Ruins of Eridu in Hawezar
  • Wildbolt Aspect from Random Drop
  • Cadaverous Aspect from Random Drop
  • Cursed Aura Aspect from Random Drop
  • Embalmer's Aspect from Random Drop

Players might also consider aspects such as Aspect of Disobedience or Aspect of Potent Blood if they are struggling with a lack of survivability or Essence. In these cases, they can replace Cursed Aura for Disobedience and Potent Blood for Cadaverous.

Unique Items

The pinnacle item of this build is Cruor's Embrace, which is a set of unique gloves added in Diablo 4's 5th Season. These gloves can drop from any enemy in World Tier 3+, but are target-farmed from the Echo of Lord Zir. This item is a must-have in order to reach the build's full potential, so getting it should be top priority.

Additionally, this build makes use of the Blood Moon Breeches, a set of unique pants. These too can drop from any enemy in World Tier 3+, but the best chance of them dropping is from Echo of Duriel or Andariel, Maiden of Anguish.

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Paragon Boards & Glyphs For The Blood Surge Necromancer

The Paragon Board setup for the Blood Surge Necromancer is fairly simple, but assumes players have the additional Paragon Points from maximizing their Renown

  1. Start/Blood-drinker
  2. Bloodbath/Sacrificial
  3. Flesh-eater/Gravekeeper
  4. Blood Begets Blood/Undaunted
  5. Scent of Death Exhumation

All glyphs should be leveled to 21, but prioritizing Blood-drinker and Undaunted should be the priority. See images for exact Paragon Node pathing.

The Amplify Glyph can be used on the starting board instead, moving Blood-drinker to Board three to replace Gravekeeper. This is up to personal preference, and results in minimal change to damage.

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9 /10

Diablo 4
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Action RPG
Hack and Slash
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Systems
PlayStation-1 Xbox-1 PC-1
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Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
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Released
June 5, 2023
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s)
Blizzard
Publisher(s)
Blizzard
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Engine
Proprietary Engine
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play
All platforms
Cross Save
All platforms
Franchise
Diablo
Number of Players
1-2 players
Steam Deck Compatibility
Verified
Genre(s)
Action RPG, Hack and Slash
How Long To Beat
26 Hours
PS Plus Availability
N/A
File Size Xbox Series
158.25 GB
Local Co-Op Support
1-2 players (console only)